Episode #1309

Kickstarter & A Kids' Book About Meth

Friday, March 02, 2012

“
I challenge myself to write about what's real and what's important and, to some extent, what impacts a greater good.

— author Jacqueline Woodson

Acclaimed young-adult novelist Jacqueline Woodson tells Kurt Andersen that teens are ready to read about drug addiction. Arts funding in the age of Kickstarter: a co-founder of the online crowd-funding platform believes it will soon eclipse the NEA — we’ll weigh the pros and cons of Kickstarter compared to government funding. And a scientist’s new theory unites biology, physics, and design, explaining why everything that moves forms certain familiar patterns. It’s the constructal law, and it’ll change the way you see the world.

Jacqueline Woodson is one of the most successful writers of young adult lit working today. But her books aren’t about vampires or rich girls. The winner of three Newbery Awards, Woodson deals with tough subjects. Her latest novel, Beneath a Meth Moon, tackles drug addiction ...

Over the last 16 years, the mechanical engineer Adrian Bejan, now a professor at Duke University, has been working on a theory for how the world works. It’s a theory of everything: how living creatures are shaped, how lava flows down mountains. It’s called the constructal law ...

Graham Greene wrote more than two dozen novels between the 1920s and the 1980s — downbeat bestsellers set in sketchy places. Writer Pico Iyer has felt an almost mystical connection to Greene, whom he never met. He chronicles that obsession in The Man Within My Head ...

Daniel Eagan knew from a young age that he wanted to pursue a career in film. The movie he credits with setting him on that path, Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels(1941), also gave him nightmares. The movie is about a disgruntled director named John Sullivan. Fed up ...